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I happily now own a pair of 4699b Cabaret Series speakers. They are in good shape. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. I don't really have much opportunity for the "sound production" that these are designed for. I then begin to think about what it would take to convert these to decent home system. The only thing I come up with seems very expensive. I post my idea here as I'd love some feedback.

JBL specs the E155 in a 6 cu. ft. box tuned to 40Hz. That should give you great bass in room. Build a small box for the mid and set the horn on top. Use the factory crossover, then tune to taste. Those should sound just fine for hi-fi. They come with the promise of compromise, just like any other speaker OR add a sub and leave as is. The components are decent, the box is too small.

Existing cabs are about 9 cu ft. so 6 cu ft would be an improvement size-wise. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with non-tuned enclosures like H-Frame or W-Frame dipoles. I've built many tuned cabinets but never an open style. My interest is two fold; small size, and different, more open, sound.

Thinking about Lee’s suggestion, a 2342 biradial horn is the same size as the E110 and they look great stacked together and are naturally very nearly time aligned.

That stackup E155, E110, 2426/2342 utilizing dsp like a dbx 260 or 360 with proper crossover, alignment and eq, the sound quality would surprize a lot of people. With some sub it would floor them.

I've always liked the look of the 2342...but I have to say that I've become a little obsessed with the Bella Luna Diamante approach...and I have a friend with a wood lathe I can use. I'm super curious as to how something like this would sound. So who has a Bella Luna Diamante in California? Of course the pictured Diamante uses custom designed drivers for this setup...the 2425/E110 would be quite different. Still, might be a fun project.

The E155 & E110 can't be considered as serious music reproducers primarily because of the metal dustcaps and the lighter cones ( the light cone manifesting it's presence in too low an MMS figure for low bass > for the BL figure ).

Both of the above factors are addressable to a great degree.

Dust-caps can be changed out for whatever JBL type goes along with the ( 2123 or 2122 ) & ( 2240 / 2245 ) > or slathered in revoable window caulking goop .

Cone weight can be added in the form of aquaplas ( or even some Hill-Billy Aquaplas by using something likeDuratex cabinet paint as a substitute ) .

Since your in California, I think it'd just be easier to give all 4 drivers to Ken ( Edgewound > since he has the aquaplas on-hand ) and ask him to make them as HiFi ready as possible .

I don't consider Xmax ( limitations ) as a deal killer here as long as the volume knob is kept in check ( & maybe using a higher overall box tuning on the 18" ) .

Just Saying my 2cents.

Ok. I was not considering that I could add mass to these cones. Is low mass the reason for the aluminum dust cover? Interesting. I'm not sure I'm down with the Hill-Billy approach but I did follow that link

MAN! The speakers that have been sitting in the listening room. I was enamored with the Cabaret series for SR. They sounded nice at venue volumes. At home they were well-behaved at normal listening levels. You might try those just the way they are. With room reinforcement you may find they're just fine for you. When Henry Ford would have a meeting with someone at a restaurant, he would observe whether his guest/interviewee seasoned their food before tasting it and made judgements based on that. IOW - it's either - ready, fire aim or ready, aim, fire.

MAN! The speakers that have been sitting in the listening room. I was enamored with the Cabaret series for SR. They sounded nice at venue volumes. At home they were well-behaved at normal listening levels. You might try those just the way they are. With room reinforcement you may find they're just fine for you. When Henry Ford would have a meeting with someone at a restaurant, he would observe whether his guest/interviewee seasoned their food before tasting it and made judgements based on that. IOW - it's either - ready, fire aim or ready, aim, fire.

The Cabaret series are real good speakers,they are real old-school sound which remind you of those old happy days,thanks to Mark Gander,the designer,please pay special attention to 4628B,because its woofer is just the same as DD55000

You'll be happy to know that JBL's recommended enclosure volumes for the E-155 are 3-8 cu. ft. ( 85-225 litres), according to JBL's E Series Instruction Manual, 2/81, P.5. Naturally, the box size you choose will determine along with tuning frequency how low you can go in the bass range...

I modeled quickly in Winspeakerz the 6 cu. ft./40 hz tuning box mentioned by another member and found in the JBL Enclosure Guide, but the result isn't that good bass wise with an early dropping response below 200 hz and - 3 db @ 50 hz or so. I also tried the same 6/40 box in WIN ISD 2016 Edition (but with a more standard QL 7 box losses number instead of Win Isd's too optimistic default number of QL 10. That way things can be honestly compared with Winspeakers results). Well, the outcome isn't nicer for the same box and tuning. Response is almost - 4 db @ 50 hz. And if tuned a little higher at 45 hz then you get a bit flatter with - 2.5+ db @ 50 hz.

You can get a better curve than these. All depends on how low do you really want to go and box size/tuning you can accept realistically... If I remember correctly, you mentioned before smallest box possible. This ain't a bad idea considering the E-155 very low Qts of 0.20 suitable for "small" boxes. But this is an 18" !

Based on JBL's above-mentioned Manual, 3 cu. ft. would be the minimum acceptable, but that may not be large enough to achieve the low-end response you may have in mind. Do you have an F3 number in mind or box size is the major guiding factor regardless of low frequency cut-off ?

You'll be happy to know that JBL's recommended enclosure volumes for the E-155 are 3-8 cu. ft. ( 85-225 litres), according to JBL's E Series Instruction Manual, 2/81, P.5.

Hi Richard - Thank you for that reference doc. I had not seen it. I think I found my answer regarding an open/dipole configuration:

Sounds like I'd risk damaging the driver.

Originally Posted by RMC

If I remember correctly, you mentioned before smallest box possible. This ain't a bad idea considering the E-155 very low Qts of 0.20 suitable for "small" boxes. Based on JBL's above-mentioned Manual, 3 cu. ft. would be the minimum acceptable, but that may not be large enough to achieve the low-end response you may have in mind. Do you have an F3 number in mind or box size is the major guiding factor regardless of low frequency cut-off ?

I tried a quick modeling in Winspeakerz with a 3.1 cu. ft. net box (the minimum size in the E-series Instruction Manual for E-155) and different tuning frequencies. The best compromise this time seems to be with an Fb of 55 hz. Response would be pretty flat in the bass range and would lead to an F3 of about 58-59 hz, which is not so bad considering such a large driver in such a small box size.

The software tells me the vent would require two 5 in. diameter vents of 6.167 in. long to tune the box at 55 hz. In order to see if such a box size has enough "breathing space" for vent length I checked in the software what 3.1 net meant re internal dimensions and I got: 28.3"H, 17.5" W, 10.8" D. So enough space for vent length. However, on width the cabinet is probably too short for the driver diameter so you may have to adjust cabinet dimensions a little. Which would be done anyway considering the next paragraph below...

According to JBL the volume displaced by an 18" driver is 0.3 cu. ft. (8.5 L) which you'll need to add to box gross volume, as well as bracing and vent volumes and anything else inside the box, in order to get to a 3.1 NET when everything is in place in the box...

BTW with an F3 of about 58-59 hz you may want to add a little EQ around 60 hz and get a little stronger and deeper bass from that small cabinet since you're close to Fb and the vent helps re cone excursion. Bingo!